Acid beverages, for example soft drinks, fruit punches, fruit juices, and like refreshments contain flavor oils. In addition, unless the sugar and/or pectin level is high they need an additive to provide body or mouthfeel. Gums and other thickeners are added to provide texture and mouthfeel. Flavor oils and clouding oils are usually emulsified into the beverage with emulsifiers or weighting oils. Other oils may also be desired to provide additional richness and opacity.
One of the problems with emulsifiers and thickening materials is that at acid pHs, particularly in the range of 3-4, the gums can be unstable and ineffective. Another problem is that the emulsification properties of the gum solution change over time and the flavor oil or other oils separate to form a ring at the top of the beverage. Weighting oils have been used to prevent this oil separation, but they have not been entirely successful. The level of weighting oil is ineffective in systems with high total oil levels. Other preventive measures include adding less oil or excessive levels of gums or thickeners.
Some of the thickening agents are pseudoplastic, i.e., they become less viscous or thinner upon shearing. This then provides a beverage which gives a thick mouthfeel but which is also easy to swallow. However, these types of materials do not always function as emulsifiers to keep the flavor oil in solution and to provide the appropriate mouthfeel at the lower acid pHs.
It has been found that a thickener/emulsifier composed of a surface active thickener, e.g., propylene glycol alginate, a pseudoplastic thickener, e.g. xanthan, and a Newtonian thickener, e.g., guar gum, used in specific combination provides a beverage in which the oil system is stable without providing an unacceptably thick texture.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a thickener/emulsifier system which is pseudoplastic providing stability in the beverage without excessive thickness.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a thickener/emulsifier system which keeps flavor oil and clouding oils suspended even at low pH.
These and other objects of this invention will be obvious from the description herein.